Walter Nirschl

Walter Nirschl comes from a family in Germany with a tradition of 6 generations in musical instrument building. His great-great-great-great-grandfather (that’s 4 greats) started making harmonicas and later brass instruments in Graslitz, Bohemia, which means the family business goes back to 1810. His grandfather, Wenzel Meinl, set up a music shop in Geretsried in 1945 and Walter later trained at the shop with his uncle Anton Meinl.

After learning the business in his uncle’s factory, Walter apprenticed at other factories including the U.S. and France. Eventually he purchased the Böhm & Meinl Symphonic, a brass instrument company in Geretsried, then the only company in the World making large bore piston tubas in the size and style of the great American York tubas.
When J.W. York and Sons closed their factory in Grand Rapids Michigan, the tooling was sent over to Böhm & Meinl where instruments continued to be made for Carl Fischer, the New York Music publisher who then owned the York name.

In 2002 Walter was hired by a company in England to modernize a factory in India using his company in Geretsried to build prototypes. After significant investment, the financial backers decided to get out of the music business leaving the Indian factory dormant. Recognizing the quality and opportunity, Gemstone Musical Instruments partnered with Walter in 2006. Combining the 60 year sales and marketing traditions of the Gemeinhardt Company with the 6 generations of German instrument craftsmanship, the W. Nirschl line of brass instruments was born in 2006.

Meister Walter Nirschl is the brand reserved for the instruments continuing in the J.W. York and Sons tradition in the shop in Geretsried, Bavaria. These instruments are played in some of the finest orchestras in the World. Many of the design and playing characteristics have been duplicated in the instruments produced under the W. Nirschl brand.